Freshman U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla, says he supported Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-VA, for speaker Thursday because he wants to “hold leadership accountable and challenge leadership when I feel that it is the right thing to do,” he said in a statement explaining his vote.

An overwhelming majority of House Republicans voted to reelect U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, as House speaker.

Yoho, though, said he won’t buck leadership just for the sake of bucking leadership.

The vote “was also a signal that I believe in team work and will work with leadership to get things done,” he said in the statement, sent Thursday night. “Congressman Cantor is part of leadership.”

Yoho, a large animal doctor from Gainesville, was one of only nine House Republicans to not support Boehner.

He faced heat from some in the GOP after allowing the House to vote on a deal that would help temporarily avert the so-called “fiscal cliff.”

That deal, which was crafted by the White House and Senate leaders, increases the national deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade and made no large spending cuts, which drew the ire of many House Republicans. More than 150, including Cantor, voted against the measure.

“He's been more and more opportunistic the past few years undermining John Boehner including rallying Republicans to vote for the fiscal cliff measure and at the last minute he himself turning against it,” Erickson said.